I was afraid somebody would ask that. I forget exactly how it works, but individuals are awarded a certain amount of points for each legal size fish (20 cm?). Points are added for additional length over the minimum. These points determine your placing in each session (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc). These placing points are added together to give you your final placing points - lowest number wins.

Four years ago, when they had the YFFWC in State College, they had a computer program that figured it all out, as well as randomly assigning competitors to their beats. At the time, I had to know all that stuff, but four years has erased a lot of the scoring details from my memory.

Also, you'll notice that only five of the team members actually fish - the sixth is an alternate. In 2007, Dan Marino was the alternate for Team USA. He was pretty bummed about not being able to fish, and I had a long sit down talk with him. I told him his day would come, and he should pay close attention, and learn all he could. He listened well! To cheer him up, I clipped my ID tag on his shirt and let him walk around with it for a bit. I'll attach a photo of him wearing it. Really nice kid.

BTW, we were allowed to have a PA Team in 2007, since we were the host country. Loren Williams coached it, and wetnet's son was the alternate on that team. They finished seventh overall!